Those of us in the democratic-republican West often find it impossible to understand how the world could go to war so often in the 20th century. We were raised in a culture that had internalized Locke, Jefferson, Mill, and others—for whom the goal of peace and respect for others’ rights to life, liberty, and property […]
Werner Sombart on heroes versus merchants Read More »
My article on the deep controversies over Kant, “Kant at the Masked Ball,” is now out in the academic journal Reason Papers. Thanks to editor Carrie-Ann Biondi, Ph.D., for her intelligent and efficient production of the issue. Here’s my opening: “1. Which of the Two Kants?We should grapple with the fact that two opposing traditions
“Kant at the Masked Ball” — article published Read More »
Revisiting this deeply personal question: Do I have what it takes to be a philosopher-king? Maybe not, according to Plato’s Republic Book 6 description of the true philosopher’s character. A real philosopher, he says: 1. Will love the pursuit of truth [485b],2. Will be indifferent to the pleasures of the body [485d],3. Will not be
Could I be a philosopher-king? Read More »
Thus spake Friedrich: “Kant’s joke. — Kant wanted to prove, in a way that would dumbfound the whole world, that the whole world was right: that was the secret joke of this soul. He wrote against the scholars in favor of popular prejudice, but for scholars and not for the people.” Nietzsche, *The Gay Science*,
Kant’s joke, according to Nietzsche Read More »
One of the major, major pessimists in history. I quoted him earlier in the context of contemporary anti-humanism and those calling for human extinction. But lest we think of Arthur as always grim and cranky, here’s a delightful zinger. Schopenhauer, assessing Kant’s moral philosophy: “I should liken Kant to a man at a ball, who
Schopenhauer’s sense of humor Read More »
Kleist was widely traveled, energetic, a brilliant writer — and a suicide at age 34. Why? In reviewing Selected Prose of Heinrich von Kleist, Ian Brunskill writes: “Kleist in his youth had espoused with enthusiasm all the optimism of the Enlightenment. Reason would conquer all; happiness would come with experience and understanding. In March 1801,
Kleist: How Kant ruined my life Read More »
Refreshing these two strikingly similar passages from Georg Hegel and Søren Kierkegaard, philosophers I generally think of as stylistically opposed. At issue are two key questions:1. What is the origin of the universe?2. What is the self? Hegel on the beginning of the universe: “So far, there is nothing: something is to become. The beginning
Philosophical style: Hegel and Kierkegaard Read More »
Foucault’s response to an interview question: “Heidegger has always been for me the essential philosopher. I started by reading Hegel, then Marx, and I began to read Heidegger in 1951 or 1952; then in 1952 or 1953, I no longer remember, I read Nietzsche. I still have the notes I took while reading Heidegger –
Is Foucault a Neo-Marxist? Heidegger as the “essential” philosopher Read More »